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Tuesday, April 25, 2006

The Bridge and the Ripe Low Hanging Fruits

A Kadir Jasin

WILL the no-new-bridge option, decided upon by the Cabinet on April 12, be the answer to the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi’s, dream of “plucking the ripe fruits first” in the acrimonious Malaysia-Singapore relations?Ahmad Fuzi

[LATEST, April 27,

"THAT there should be any Malaysian leader willing to entertain this idea, to destroy Malaysian seas to satisfy Singapore speaks badly of his love for this country," said Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, replying to Ahmad Fuzi. Full text see www.kmu.net.my and malaysia today.net]

That’s among the many questions that Malaysian voters and taxpayers may want answered in the light of the lengthy “diplomatic” explanation of the bridge cancellation by Ambassador At-Large, Tan Sri Ahmad Fuzi Abdul Razak, and the continuing challenge against the decision.

Ahmad Fuzi, who is now the sole authorised spokesman on the bridge issue, had released a statement (in English) explaining events leading to the April 12 cabinet decision to cancel the project.

His statement, which was issued to the Press on the evening of April 24 and embargoed until 1.00am, April 25, injected the diplomatic and legal flavours to the hot and, by now, highly confusing issue.

“Plucking the ripe fruits first”, according to Ahmad Fuzi , was the metaphor Abdullah used to describe his approach to the negotiations with Singapore. Abdullah, according to Ahmad Fuzi, was also hoping to pluck them first from the lower branches.

Although Ahmad Fuzi is not a politician, his explanation included several strong political statements, like reminding us that the present Government has a two-third majority in Parliament and could, if it wants, decide on the issue and get the people to agree later.[[[[Update, April 27,

LET'S take a coffee break from this heavy stuff. Or shall we say comic break? The Minister responsible for monitorng the 9th Malaysia Plan, Affendi Norwawi, could end up in jail if his ex-wife Zariah Hashim, formally known as Farida Affendi, is successful in her contempt allegation against him.

The Kuala Lumpur Syariah Court had set Aug. 10 to hear contempt proceeding against Affendi for allegedly failing to fulfil a multi-million ringgit divorce settlement entered into on Jan. 28, 2005.

When Muhamad Muhamad Taib faced currency charges in an Australian Court in the 1990's, he was "forced" to take leave and later resigned as Selangor Menteri Besar. That was transparency and accountability. He was later found not guilty.]]]

In fact that’s what it did, actually. It decided to abandon the bridge project and only later informed the people. This happened only weeks after a soft-launch of the project was carried out, officiated by Deputy Works Minister, Datuk Mohd Zin Mohamed, and when the construction of the new Custom, Immigration and Quarantine Complex (CIQ) in Johor Baru is almost completed.

The Role of AG’s Chamber

AHMAD Fuzi’s statement gave the impression of how seriously the Cabinet viewed the opinions of the Attorney General’s Chamber on the legal implications, which appears to be confined to two areas.

One was the relocation of PUB water mains in the Malaysian territory and the likelihood of Singapore not authorising the use of the railway track on its side of the Causeway for reason of structural integrity. This may, in turn, affect the position, thus ownership, of KTM’s assets in Singapore.

Ahmad Fuzi spoke of the Government having four options, namely:

First was to approve the BPU (broad political understanding) and proceed with detailed negotiations to conclude a Final Agreement;

Second was to proceed with the scenic half bridge that would join the Singapore part of the Causeway;

Third was to unilaterally build a scenic half bridge that could eventually be linked to become a full scenic bridge with Singapore; and

Fourth was not to proceed with any bridge at all, which, according to Ahmad Fuzi, was the decision taken by the Government.

Ahmad Fuzi said if a compromise is considered too much under the first option in view of strong public sentiments, this should be the best option.

The Simplest Way Out

THIS option (i.e. the no-bridge-of-any-kind option), according to Ahmad Fuzi, means that Malaysia does not have to consider lifting the ban on the export of sand and granting to Singapore Air Force the limited privileges in the use of its airspace for Search and Rescue missions and as the Northern Corridor Transit.

Malaysia can now even consider imposing a complete ban on the export of sand to any country as a matter of policy if public sentiments on the issue are as strong as being reflected in the media, said Ahmad Fuzi.

It would appear that the Government, acting on the advice of diplomats and legal people, had decided on the simplest option – not to proceed with the project.

But the people’s sentiments are not the only consideration. Singapore’s feeling and/or interest, it appears, are not altogether ignored. Ahmad Fuzi noted:

“ The Government’s decision to scrap the bridge project would also have the advantage of preventing the two sides from being embroiled in endless political bickering and legal disputes.

“The decision is not necessarily a win-lose situation. Malaysia did not really lose even if it did not get the bridge. Singapore too did not look at Malaysia’s decision in terms of victory or defeat. After all, Singapore too did not get what it wanted in respect of sand and airspace.”

Despite his own failure as the head of the Malaysian team to the last five rounds of negotiations with Singapore to make any meaningful headway, Ahmad Fuzi continues to dream of better days in the relations with the island republic.

He said: “More must certainly be done by both sides to allow the two countries to move ahead in nurturing mutually beneficial cooperative relations.”

Datuk,AAB administration is attempting to "menegak benang basah" and the harder they try, the more they make fools of themselves.

Dr. Mahathir's open letter is an eye opener, the Great man has lost none of his intellect and feistiness, he is a Malaysian patriot of the highest order.The present Cabinet combined pales in comparison.

I wonder if the Singapore government had revealed secrets that scared the daylights of AAB administration to force them to shamelessly catapult and make this 180 degree decision to cancel the bridge project. I think they should just keep quiet starting today before their statements could be misinterpreted as being apologists for Singapore.

lame duck malaysian government have to change the way they speaks to mental blokage singaporean leader. They have to use harsh and abusive language. because the singaporean leader are too deaf to hear the soft and diplomatic language.From now on Malaysian have to stop the discussion of bilateral talk let tambak pasir disebelah sempadan Malaysia until the border. If they can do , malaysia also can do the same

WHAT Proton and other GLCs and PLCs (party-linked companies) are doing today, like retrenching staff, reducing vendors and suppliers, abandoning the Bumiputera policy and dressing up the bottomline, is the consequence of official policy.

By stressing solely on profitability, GLCs are transforming themselves from economic creatures to creatures of the market place.

When the Government, starting with the late Tun Abdul Razak Hussain, vigorously promoted the formation of trust agencies and companies, the idea was not solely to get involved in business.

The more important consideration was to serve and promote the neglected and backward Bumiputera economy through the injection of capital, training and employment, promoting Bumiputera entrepreneurship and last, but not least, to provide platform for meaningful partnership between Bumiputeras and non-Bumiputeras.

It was only a year or two ago that these trust agencies and companies are being treated as the normal profit-oriented business entities with their own key performance Index (KPI).

In such a situation, firing the staff, terminating vendors, stripping and selling off assets and abandoning the Bumiputera policy are a fundamental part of good management. The justification is the bottomline.

It's, therefore, unfair to blame the GLCs managers. They are merely carrying out the wishes of their majority shareholder.

They cannot be selling assets at one Euro or firing 6,000 staff unless consented to by the Government who is represented at the board and management.

i'm just perplexed. how can they concluded that malaysia is not losing (our sovereignty is intact by not selling our sands and airspace) and s'pore is not winning cause they can't get those things. Can we at least go back to the main purpose. BUILDING A BRIDGE. We are losing cause we can't build that bridge. And not able to get all the benefits that everybody knows that we should get by building the bridge. Period. S'pore not being able to get those sands and bridge is not in the picture in the first place. They are just smart enough to try their luck!

I don't see any valid reason as to why some people are making a big issue about this BRIDGE. The PM has stoped it and all negotiations are ceased for now. This does not mean that there will be no negotiations anymore in future. I agree with the PM on this matter. It will be a good thing as it will let Singapore Officials realise the consequence of their unrealistic demands. Its not a matter of who gains or who loses and its not a matter of who is capable or who is not. This sudden decision is taken well by the rakyat and I think that it will be for the best interest of all Malaysians to stay firm to the decision of our present Prime Minister.

I suggest this topic should be categorised on its own with its own set of comments which I am sure will be fully subscribed . The KPIs and KRAs are indeed actually directly affecting the bread and butter of many Malaysians.

I do not agree though, about you comparing the education attainment of the various members of the Malaysian and the Singapore Government. Excellence in Politics and the governing of a sovereign nation has got nothing to do with the educational attainment of an individual minister.

What is important is that the ministers and in particular the Prime Minister who makes the ultimate decisions must be surrounded by a group first Class Advisers.As a good example Dr. Mahathir had a good set of advisers from a broad spectrum of experience. I wonder if AAB had that kind of advisors, well, obviously not if his decision on the bridge and the recent fuel price hike is anything to go by.

For drmuziyou mention that singapore are lead by creme dela creme leader.team singapore comprise of the cream of the cream either in their negotiating team or even in the parliament.wait the minute, we don't need to have socalled harvard or oxford and cambridge expert.from my observation this socalled elite graduate only expert to get A's in exam but they lack in innovation and creative mind. They actually don't get normal way of life but only concentrate in their studies. Usually they are blue blood or bangsawan who can't live even with basic survival. They are spoon fed and son of the riches.You have to be proud of our very own local university eventough we have so many creme de la creme graduate.let be they specialise with their own course. No need to take prof. as PM.

Their news editor say that JB is full of crime and prevent singaporean from go to JB. Tak faham lagi ke org Malaysia.If singaporean say a bad word about JB than why not we demolish the causeway. We malaysian also don't want singaporean make a crime at malaysian land.For malaysian government better we close permanently CIQ at causeway and let the causeway be a rotten trunk itself. Only Linkedua the access for mental blokage singaporean leader who want to go to Malaysia. Let be the road jamm forever. Malaysian have to change drastically the way they talk with singapore leader. Don't act softly with dead wood singapore leader.The fact is Singapore need Malaysia more than we need them. mereka byk terhutang budi dengan malaysia tapi dibayar dengan tuba.Change the way we think of others.

7. Because Singapore was unwilling to make a decision on building its side of the bridge to replace its side of the causeway, I informed Singapore that Malaysia intended to build a bridge on its side to land on a part of the causeway also on its side. The Singapore side of the causeway will not be touched. The connection will continue to be between the retained portion of the Johore Causeway and the Singapore half of the causeway.

The Way leave agreement and precedent allows for the moving of the pipeline as said by Tun Mahathir.

The KTM canbe replaced by a swinging track as per in teh design.

The negotiation power given to Tan Sri Fuzi is about the full bridge and not about half bridge which was long gone a done deal.

The fact that the long gone issue of sand and air space is brought back in when it was ignored since its attempt to reinclude in November and December 2004 seems to indicate that there are "interested parties" ready to give teh sand away.

And this speculation is further reinforced by the misadvise provided by Dato Syed Hamid and Tan Sri Fuzi to the PM.

The fact that Pm can be swayed aside when he had earlier clearly agreed that he wanted the half bridge indicates that the PM is swayed and influenced by some fact not disclosed to the public and enforced the wide perception that PM bites whatever is spooned into his mouth by his "advisers" without knowing what is being ushered in.

About Me

I was born in 1947 in Kedah. I came from a rice farming family. I have been a journalist since 1969. I am the Editor-in-Chief of magazine publishing company, Berita Publishing Sdn Bhd. I was Group Editor NST Sdn Bhd and Group Editor-in-Chief of NSTP Bhd between 1988 and 2000. I write fortnightly column “Other Thots” in the Malaysian Business magazine, Kunta Kinte Original in Berita Harian and A Kadir Jasin Bercerita in Dewan Masyarakat. Books: Biar Putih Tulang (1998), Other Thots – Opinions & Observations 1992-2001 (2001), The Wings of an Eagle (2003), Mencari Dugalia Huso (2006), Damned That Thots (2006), Blogger (2006), PRU 2008-Rakyat Sahut Cabaran (2008), Komedi & Tragedi-Latest in Contemporary Malaysian Politics (2009) and Membangun Bangsa dengan Pena (2009).